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Quiet rifles more effective on game?
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I've shot a lot of rabbits and it appears to me that rabbits frequently run off when hit with high speed .22 solid points whereas they seldom run do when hit with sunbsonic solid point .22 ammo. I think the sonic crack of the high speed bullets close to their ears scares them more than the impact of the bullets and while they may take the same time to die they are harder to fing when they rum for a couple seconds. I also shot a lot off deer with a .338-.378 Weatherby when we had a rifle season for antlerless deer here. That rifle is set up for long range shooting and deer shot with it at over 600 yards did not run when shot but might trot/walk and die only a few steps away. However, a few deer shot at 400 yards or less (hit through the lungs with big exit holes) ran a long ways at full speed. I think the rifle's report was really loud for the deer to hear on the closer shots and not nearly so loud and scarry on the long shots. And that again, the sound scarred the deer more than being hit by a bullet. Now I've had silencers for about two years and have done some hunting with them but have not yet shot a lot of game with guns using them. Have you silencer users noticed if hit game stands around more (runs less) after being hit with a silenced rifle compared to if a silencer is not used?
 
Posts: 278 | Registered: 25 November 2005Reply With Quote
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My daughter shot a bison at 180 yards with a suppressed rifle and it just stood there then fell over. The rest of the herd just stood there looking confused as to why one fell.

Matthew
 
Posts: 383 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 29 May 2009Reply With Quote
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Interesting,
I thought I was the only person contemplating this. I've been pondering this for quite a while. Back when I used to run hounds on coon, progress being what it is, we would often tree coons near roads or houses. If I was hunting in areas where I knew that might happen I would carry some sub-sonic 22LR ammo. Many times, way too many to be a fluke, I would shoot a coon in the tree with the sub-sonic ammo and it would die right there and hang up in the tree. It never happened with high velocity 22LR....the coon always moving out the limb or coming down the tree before it jumped or fell out. Coons are quite hard to kill at times but something about those sub-sonic rounds did them in before they could move out of the fork they were in.
 
Posts: 1330 | Location: Western NC | Registered: 08 January 2005Reply With Quote
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You're right on the toughness of a coon. I remember about 50 years ago we were hunting coons + had this black fellow along with us. We treed this coon + he climbed the tree + the scooted out on the limb toward that coon. The coon looked at him + at the pack of dogs below + them jumped into the pack of dogs. A coon KNOWS he can whip a dog but a person is a different matter. At least in this case that was the end result.


Never mistake motion for action.
 
Posts: 17357 | Location: Austin, Texas | Registered: 11 March 2013Reply With Quote
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I've shot a lot of raccoons in the back yard as they would raid the bird feeders. Since the rifle I use is chambered for .22 shorts only and I use subsonics, I almost always take head shots. However, since putting a suppressor on the rifle I did shoot two raccoons using lung shots and to my surprise they just flopped over. Also, I recently shot a coyote at 206 yards (laser range finder) with a suppressed .17 Ackley Hornet which might be considered a questionable 200-yard coyote gun. The coyote just flopped over and squirmed and wiggled around for several seconds before giving up the ghost. I think that if the rifle had made a lot of noise that coyote may have run during those last several seconds of life rather than have done what it did.
 
Posts: 278 | Registered: 25 November 2005Reply With Quote
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I agree with the premise of lower velocity killing faster AND the noise SCARING the animal. So does that mean we waste a lot of powder over killing animals? The speeds used are unnecessary? Try a subsonic wide flat nosed cast bullet in most any caliber and watch the results. The suppressor is most effective. But the ammo can be made efficient for the caliber by careful loading without magnumitis.
 
Posts: 2140 | Registered: 28 May 2002Reply With Quote
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I don’t think I’ve ever used a flat nosed bullet but now use flat nosed pellets in air rifles. Beaman Air Guns used to advertise the ballistic advantages of pointed pellets they were selling. I tried them in an 800-fps .177 caliber air rifle and found they had little killing power compared to flat nosed pellets. In fact, even round nosed pellets killed much better and a round nosed pellet actually has a better ballistic coefficient at subsonic velocities than a pointed pellet, but it was probably a good sales gimmick for the unexperienced. As a kid I shot ground squirrels and a few larger things with a .22 Hornet and the 45-grain round nose slugs (at an actual 2,400 fps) would almost cut a ground squirrel in half. Much later I got a .22/.250 and expected even better results with its pointed hollow point bullets but found they had hardly started to expand when hitting a ground squirrel. But I’ve had some surprisingly good results with high-velocity guns. My first 7MM STW shot 120-grain Hornaday hollow point bullets at almost 3,700 fps. In spite of that bullet being a varmint bullet, it always shot completely through antelope making 1-1/2 inch exit holes with its 1-in-12 twist. My buddy shot the closer antelopes (closer than 300 yards) and I shot the farther away antelopes (over 300 to 400+ yards). He used a .270 Win and generally his antelope ran 50 yards after being hit. Those hit with the 7MM STW fell immediately or maybe took a step or two. And I shot a lot of antelope with it. My buddy knick-named it sudden death. Maybe part of the reason for the better results with the 7MM STW was that they didn’t hear as big of a report at the longer distances? But that gun would not accurately shoot the modern plastic tipped bullets (Nosler Ballistic Tips) so I got another 7MM STW and gave the old one to my son. The newer one shot Nosler 140-grain Ballistic tips at 3,500+ fps and had a lot more energy at 400 yards. However, it did not seem to kill antelope as quickly. And I guess a lot of killing power is bullet placement. Over the years I’d shot a lot of birds, rabbits and squirrel with both my 800-fps air rifle and my Feinwerkbaw 300 Match rifle which shoots pellets at about 550 fps. With the higher velocity air-rifle a lot of stuff would fly or run off a way before going down. But with the match air-rifle and a good rest it is possible to put the pellet exactly where needed (like brain shots for rabbits and squirrels) and they are instantly dead. Also, I in the past there were lots of feral cats where I pheasant hunt, and they are pretty hard to stop instantly. Even shot with a .17 Remington they often ran a few feet. However, I got a barrel in .22 Cooper Centerfire Magnum (looks like a .22 rimfire magnum but it’s centerfire). With 40-grain Sierra Hornet bullets (round nosed) at about 2,300 fps they seemed to drop feral cats in their tracks. I don’t know what was so magic about that gun on cats but I got a lot of them with it and it really worked. Sometimes I just can’t figure out why some things work so well and some don’t.
 
Posts: 278 | Registered: 25 November 2005Reply With Quote
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Shoot a grouse through the body with a 22 LR watch them fly off, then shoot one through the body with a CCI CB and watch them fall out the tree. The lower velocity CB Cap will usually stay in the body and they are quiet in a rifle barrel.


kk alaska
 
Posts: 950 | Registered: 06 February 2003Reply With Quote
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I was given a special permit and asked to shoot a sick deer as part of the FWC research on CWD. I didn’t want to disturb the area too much so I put my suppressor on my 300 Win Mag. Off I go.


When I shot the doe, there were several other does around. Plus some turkeys. None of them ran off. Some

looked around. I was using full power loads. Pretty incredible.
 
Posts: 11907 | Location: Orlando, FL | Registered: 26 January 2006Reply With Quote
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This is far from a silenced gun but...

I have a custom barrel in .357 Maximum for a Thompson-Center TCR-87 which is 25 inches long. It shoots 200-gr Hornaday Flex Tip pointed bullets at 2,200 fps. This is an attempt to get the longest range gun possible with our law limiting rifles to those chambered for pistol cartridges. With so little powder compared to its bore size, I think there isn't much pressure at the muzzle compared to the same length barrel with a good bottleneck cartridge and consequently it is probably not as loud at a distance. Anyway, I had an opportunity to shoot a large deer with an OK 9-point rack at 220 yards. There was a 12 to 15 mph wind from the front and side which would further reduce the loudness of the shot from the deer's location. He was quartered toward me but I did not hold enough for wind and hit in the ribcage a little too far back to get much besides the back of one lung. He ran a few yards toward me and stopped again quartering toward me. I shot again and again hit almost exactly the same spot and he again ran a few yards toward me, now about 180 yards away but with a good side shot so the third shot centered him in the lungs and he ran to the side for a few yards and dropped. Of the several deer I've now shot (all at 180 to 240 yards) with this cartridge/long barrel combination, I don't think any deer ran straight away but to the side instead, except this one which came toward me after the first 2 shots. I think the lower report may not have startled them as much when I've shot deer closer with better cartridges.
 
Posts: 278 | Registered: 25 November 2005Reply With Quote
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